Once one of the biggest bands in the world, Def Leppard is now a bit of a joke among “serious” rock fans. But do they deserve that? Amanda thinks not, and does her best to convince Rich, Mike, and Phil that Hysteria is a truly excellent album. Even if you’re not on board with Mutt Lange’s super-shiny production, this is a terrific bunch of songs, and very much worth any music fan’s time. Yes, even “Pour Some Sugar On Me.” Especially “Pour Some Sugar On Me.”
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In this episode, Ben leads everyone through an album nobody would have pegged him as loving (since it's not by Elvis), 1967's The Velvet Underground and Nico. Produced (sort of) by Andy Warhol and featuring singing (sort of) by German model Nico, the album's noisy, abrasive rock music - sweetened by Lou Reed's reliable pop instincts - has influenced generations of bands. But is it any fun to listen to? Ben says heck yes, Will rolls his eyes, and Amanda and Phil bring some sorely needed nuance to the table. There's definitely Discord here - probably inevitable whenever Lou Reed is involved.
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ULLA!!! In this episode Discord & Rhyme tackles “Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of the War of the Worlds” from 1978, an art-rock/disco musical based on the 1898 H.G. Wells novel The War of the Worlds and which John posits as the most ‘70s album ever made. Featuring an unforgettable spoken word performance by Richard Burton, as well as an absolutely fascinating who’s who collection of prominent late-’70s vocalists from the worlds of rock music and musicals, this album has gone down in history in the United States as a cult obscurity, but is one of the 40 best-selling albums of all time in the United Kingdom. In this episode John leads Amanda, Phil, and Rich in a deep-dive examination of this album, with particular focus on the various leitmotifs used in creating the music, but also focuses on the question of how such a strange album, made by somebody best known for writing British advertising jingles and television themes, became such a lasting cultural phenomenon in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking nations outside the United States and Canada.
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This week on Discord & Rhyme, we strap in for another ride through ’90s indie rock as we discuss Pavement’s beautifully messy third album, Wowee Zowee. Released right as the band was positioned for a possible mainstream breakout, this sprawling, stylistic tour de force was apparently the last thing MTV’s Buzz Bin was looking for in 1995. Over the years, however, fans and critics have come around to the album’s wild, unpredictable twists and turns through gorgeous soundscapes, tossed-off blasts of punk fuzz, country-rock ballads, big power-pop hooks, and stoned weirdness. Special guest (and fellow music podcaster himself) Jeff Blehar joins Dan, Phil, and Rich for a deep dive into Pavement’s eclectic masterpiece.
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This week on Discord & Rhyme: witty, unpredictable talent and natural game. In the early ‘90s, Bobby Diggs, aka Bobby Digital, aka the RZA, served as de facto leader for a nine-piece Staten Island (or Shaolin) collective that changed the face of hip-hop. The Wu-Tang Clan’s rhymes were clever, aggressive, filled with pop culture references, and came at you from all sides, paired with production from the RZA, who preferred to sample empty space and dissonance over conventional hooks. Between 1994 and 1996, the members of Wu-Tang unleashed a whole volley of classic solo albums, and 1995’s Liquid Swords by the GZA, alias the Genius, might be the greatest of all of them. On this episode Rich leads Mike, Ben, and Phil through RZA’s chaotic sound landscapes and GZA’s murderous rhymes tight with genuine craft, both of which helped him realize that hip-hop is one of the greatest things in the entire world.
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My, my, my! Brian Eno is the producer’s producer, so it only makes sense that Producer Mike would eventually get around to him. Eno is renowned for producing classic albums for U2 and Talking Heads, pioneering and naming the genre of ambient music, and composing the seven seconds that comforted Windows 95 users as they learned how to use the Start button. Today, Mike guides Dan, John, and Rich through Here Come the Warm Jets, Eno’s 1974 solo debut, released shortly after Roxy Music proved too small to house both his ego and Bryan Ferry’s. Warm Jets was composed and produced piecemeal in the studio, which Eno saw as its own instrument, and the result is a taped-together masterpiece filled with overdubs (one song contains 27 tracks of piano). It can take some time for the noisy blur of Warm Jets to coalesce into identifiable, hummable pieces, but we’re hoping to help ease you into the madness.
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Progessive metal titans Dream Theater are one of those “love them or hate them” bands that everybody seems to have an opinion on. Phil firmly falls into the “love them” category. On this episode, he and the crew take on one of Dream Theater’s most well-known albums, 1999’s “Metropolis Pt. 2 - Scenes From A Memory”, and get into the nitty gritty about what they like about it and what they don’t like about it. There’s a lot more discord on this episode of Discord And Rhyme than average, as the crew ranges from lovers (Phil) to the more skeptical (everyone else).
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Arguably the rock-geekiest band of all time, Hoboken indie-rockers Yo La Tengo have internalized seemingly every album they've ever heard, and they mix these diverse influences into distinctive and tasty musical stir-fries. Sometimes they're noisy and deliberately sloppy, sometimes they're gorgeous and pensive, but they're almost always engaging, and I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is simultaneously their most accessible and their most eclectic album to date. It also happens to be Will's favorite album ever, so get ready for a heapin' helpin' of superlatives as he hosts this in-depth look at its 16 songs, along with fellow YLT fans Dan, Mike, and Rich.
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We are commemorating the 50th anniversary of two world-changing events: the Apollo 11 moon landing and the release of To Our Children’s Children’s Children, the Moody Blues’ very best album. At least, that is the opinion of the five of us on this episode, and we did our very best to convey why we love this music with all our hearts. Dense but accessible, spine-chillingly beautiful, and toweringly ambitious, To Our Children’s Children’s Children pushed the band’s sound as far as it could possibly go. We can’t possibly express how much we love it in a mere two and a half hours, but we sure tried.
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Get jammed by Discord & Rhyme! This week, we spotlight British punk rockers the Jam, specifically their 1979 post-punk opus Setting Sons. John, Rich, Dan, and host Ben unpack Paul Weller's dark subject matter and make the case that it can still result in fun — and even uplifting — music. It doesn't hurt that the band's spare, crackling energy makes even the dourest songs danceable, and that the 20-year-old Weller's worldview — cynical and biting, but somehow still hopeful — transcends the grimy streets of late-1970s England. Join four Yanks (plus one expat in an edifying guest appearance) as we discuss how Paul Weller's message resonates with us — even 40 years later, even Over Here, and even in our decidedly un-punky mid-thirties.
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